Spending time with Suzie is such a joy. Brad, the kids, and I always look forward to seeing her. Before she arrived, I went to the Asian market and bought all of the ingredients to make dragon rolls and spicy tuna rolls. Finding everything took some time, but I returned with several overflowing bags just before she drove up. She had come early dressed in a pretty green-checkered dress. Cici and Max ran out to greet her.
Suzie jumped right in, starting the sushi rice while Cici talked her ear off. My contribution was cleaning the shrimp and inserting toothpicks to keep them from curling when they hit the hot coconut oil. The kids dipped the shrimps in egg, flour, and panko crumbs and then we carefully dropped them in. The smell was delicious!
Suzie went from starting the rice cooker to mixing the spicy mayo sauce for the spicy salmon. Cici was still talking, and Max was telling jokes. (“The teacher told Timmy that the sky was the limit, and from that day forward his aspiration to become an astronaut was crushed.”)
When the rice was done, we let it cool and poured the rice mix (rice vinegar, sugar and salt) in while folding it – not stirring – all the while being careful not to bruise the rice. Suzie deftly diced the salmon and then mixed the spicy mayo sauce over the top. By that time, my mouth was watering.
I demonstrated how to carefully spread the rice on a nori sheet, and how to place the ingredients in a strip down the middle, horizontally. I rolled one and sliced it. Then I asked Max and Cici if they wanted to try. Both declined. They just wanted to eat. Suzie stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun. Her first roll looked fantastic! We all ate until we couldn’t eat any more.
It was so much fun making sushi together.
Songs of My Families 